May CILIP Update

May's Update features an article on creating a sharing culture, which should've been really interesting but instead is just a load of management-speak and not very readable or accessible.

I did like the article by Martin White, though, on collaboration. It's very readable with some practical insights:
"If an organisation has an effective information management strategy, all its employees are able to say:
- I can find the information I need
- I trust the information I find
- I can publish information for others to use
- I am able to share my expertise
- My manager supports my information responsibilities
- My networks extend beyond the firewall"

This could be our long-term vision - for me, the focus for this year is for the first two bullets - getting the information together and agreeing quality assurance processes to build trust. We'll be dabbling with sharing information but it's getting the balance of small steps and big leaps forward so that any change can be sustained...

Business intelligence system at Shrewsbury

E-Health Insider features a news article on a new system at Shrewsbury, to help manage business intel - the idea is that the system helps address the lack of capacity for number crunching and analysis.
http://www.e-health-insider.com/news/5900/shrewsbury_pilots_neutrino_bi

"The software displays four bars, including how many people have breached the 18 week promise, those patients that are yet to be see, whether the data was right and can be validated, and a backlog of patients."

Recent HSJs

Having trouble keeping this up to date!

Here are some recent snippets from HSJ...

22 April issue included a supplement on informatics to coincide with HC2010. Most interesting is an article about North Bristol NHS Trust's approach to a data warehousing/business intelligence solution. They opted to build a solution inhouse as they felt there wasn't an off-the-peg solution which suited. There may be some lessons to learn here for our own data warehouse project. North Bristol have over 1000 users for the new system which equates to 1 in 9 of the Trust’s employees. The data warehouse pulls information in from 30 existing IT systems.

13 May has an article on NHS Evidence and how it can support the quality and productivity agenda. Part of the problem is that there is little evidence around the impact of commissioning. There is a recognition that there needs to be more clinical input to commissioning decisions and that more use could be made of tools out there, e.g. NHS Institute's Better Care Better Value indicators. The roundtable discussion concluded the NHS must look at innovation and quality but keeping cost in mind. They also predicted that in future, there will be more emphasis on information for patients (and the coalition government has suggested more patient-friendly performance information). The role of accreditation in highlighting guidance based on robust evidence is discussed– participants saw this as important so clinicians and managers understand the strength of evidence on which guidance is based. They also talked about a fear of spreading and implementing evidence due to increased cost pressures so predicted future decision making will have to balance cost to benefit as well as patient outcomes - NHS Evidence is developing as a tool to support decision-making but I suspect awareness is still quite low on the ground.

News and opinion in HSJ 15 April

HSJ 15 April issue:

• Report from NQB on lack of quality information – suggests that organisations review what info is needed for decision-making and improving patient care and stop collecting data that isn’t useful. Data from secondary care tends to be good but very little on community services or primary care. Final version of the report is due in May.
• Article on reaction to growing talk of the need to close hospitals – quotes recent McKinsey report which included a review of bed occupancy – suggests up to £700m spent on hospital procedures having limited clinical benefit – if patients receive more info on options, likely outcomes and risks, fewer tend to opt for surgery e.g. mastectomies (can drop by half) and prostatectomies (can drop by a quarter) – report also claims that up to 40% of patients in typical hospital at any one time don’t need to be there – due to delays in receiving tests/therapies; lack of more suitable care facilities in community. A Picker Institute study – a trial of shared decision making with pts in gynaecology – led to 40% reduction in treatment costs
• Tackling foundation trusts and enabling them to fulfil their role as leaders – suggest there is a role for commissioners to “develop into the local driving force of service improvement, challenging providers to be more efficient and effective and to meet the needs of patients in the most clinically effective – and cost effective – way. Commissioners need different ways of assessing the needs of the populations, and effective methods to ensure needs are met and demand is managed. Above all, commissioners need to embrace the concept of being the patient’s friend."

Open access - costs and benefits

The April edition of CILIP Update reports on a new JISC report by Key Perspectives on scholarly communications – and finds that open access is likely to cost research-intensive HEIs more. However, the report also lists the benefits of open access to the HE sector: better accessibility of research information, savings from less duplication of research, reduction in plagiarism, facilitation of inter-disciplinary research. The last three of these are dependent on usage of open access publications and reaching a critical mass. The report also talks through scenarios of how open access might develop.

Fair share formula; care closer to home and prevention

Interesting articles in HSJ – 8/4/10:

• Article on fair share formula for practice budgets – reports new allocation formula for determining target commissioning budget of each GP practice and some speculation that may be applied in 2011-12.
• Article on moving care closer to home and focusing on prevention by Jennifer Taylor. Virtual wards concept to prevent emergency hospital admissions – uses predictive risk modelling to predict patients at risk of emergency hospital admission within next 12 months. Then given intensive preventive care to reduce risk. NHS East of England delivering care at home using a personal health planning tool, for patients with long term conditions. This allows patients to state what they need and allows pooling of services so care is more systematised – therefore less duplication.

RIF projects - West Midlands

West Midlands SHA has announced the recipients of the latest round of the Regional Innovation Fund at : http://www.westmidlands.nhs.uk/Default.aspx?id=337&tabid=139

Would be useful to have links to the project descriptions tho....

Next round opens later this month...